Design

With three out of our 4 contenders clad in metal, things are looking bleak for the Sony X Compact covered entirely in plastic.

The X Compact is carved in a boxy, flat and edgy top and bottom portions.

It’s glass panels all around for the Zenfone 3 5.5 sandwiching the metal frame.

Mi 5S Plus is mostly covered in brushed metal with plastic caps on top and bottom portion to make way for signal reception.

While the Nokia 6 joins the fray with a matte aluminum finish with antenna lines running along the edges.

The fingerprint sensor of Xperia X Compact is located at the right side embedded on the power button.

Both the Mi 5s Plus and Zenfone 3’s is rear mounted while the Nokia 6 has its embedded atop the capacitive home button.

The most pocket-friendly and palm-friendly handset belongs to the Xperia X Compact.

The Zenfone 3 5.5 will be the most slippery of the 4.

All mid-range handsets clad in metal will feel heavy, premium, and cool to the touch.

Display

3 of 4 will be sporting an IPS LCD screen compared to the Zenfone 3 5.5 opting instead for a more capable Super IPS+ display.

3 of 4 is set at 1080p resolution sans the X Compact at a meager 720p.

X Compact also has the smallest screen at 4.6 inches while Nokia 6 and Zenfone 3 both measure at 5.5 inches. The most generous belong to the Mi 5s Plus at 5.7 inches.

The most saturated display belongs to the Xperia X Compact followed by the Mi 5s Plus. Both contenders are also the brightest with decent readability in broad daylight.

Zenfone 3 5.5 will have the coolest tone like that of the Nokia 6.

The Zenfone 3 wins this one.

Camera

The dual 13MP of the Mi 5s Plus and the 21MP of the X Compact captured the most details during daylight shots with accurate colors and a touch of saturation, respectively.

This is followed closely by the 16MP snapper of the Zenfone 3 5.5 with a washed-out photo comparing. While Nokia 6 tried to respond with an over-sharpened version of the same image.

During indoor shooting, colors will favor the Mi 5s Plus and the Nokia 6 compared to the pale, cooler and sharper version of Zenfone 3 5.5 and X Compact.

Details will be sharper for Mi 5s Plus and X Compact during low-light scenarios followed by Nokia 6. While Zenfone 3 5.5 struggled to keep in focus. Nokia 6 and X Compact was met with white balance issues seen here.

The built-in flash will aid the X Compact and Zenfone 3. 5.5 in gaining color for the images while a muted version is left for the rest of our contenders.

2 of our contenders cap at 1080p when taking videos. Only the Mi 5s Plus and the Zenfone 3 5.5 will have 4K video recording singulair for allergies. But for the purposes of our test we have taken all videos in 1080p.

Zenfone 3 5.5 will have the smoothest playback thanks to Optical Image Stabilization. Followed by the X Compact with electronic image stabilization. All the others will have no anti-shake support.

The 4MP selfie camera of the Mi 5s Plus was sharp but is met with white balance issues even during live capture which could have been due to a software bug. All the others in the fight revealed similar results with touches of different white balances on my face here.

We are giving it a tie between Mi 5s Plus and Xperia X Compact.

Performance

On paper, Mi 5s Plus has the most powerful processor followed by the X Compact with Snapdragon 821 and 650, respectively.

Behind the X Compact is the SD 625 of the Zenfone 3 5.5 and the last is the low-profile SD 430 of the Nokia 6.

There will be 4GB of RAM for the Mi 5s Plus and Nokia 6 while the rest settled for 3GB of use.

The closest stock-android experience belongs to Nokia 6.

The remaining contenders have proprietary bloat and skins that may impeded on usage as time goes by.

Flavors include the iOS like MiUI, the bloat heavy ZenUI, and the color heavy Xperia UI.

MI 5s Plus will be the most capable daily driver performing without any lags or stutters that is the best at handling graphic intensive apps and games.

Zenfone 3 5.5 and X Compact are performing mid-range handsets in providing good overall performance with very minimal hiccups.

The least capable will be the Nokia 6 that is suited for daily tasks and casual gaming.

Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus clearly takes this one.

Battery

Mi 5s Plus comes with the largest battery pack at 3800mAh and the least belongs to the 2700mAh of the X Compact. The rest will have a fair 3000mAh battery pack.

Most of our mid-range contenders will last up to 4 hours of screen-on-time.

3 out of 4 again will be topping up its tank for about 2 hours while the Mi 5s Plus needing an extra hour.

Pricing and Verdict

Nokia 6 is the cheapest of the four mid-range phones with an international price of Php11,990 but currently retails for Php18,590 or 370 USD in Lazada and will probably stay that way in the gray market.

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Hi! I'm Jade, an Electronics and Communications Engineer and tech enthusiast. I am the editor-in-chief here at ManilaShaker and on our YouTube channel. If you have questions, suggestions or anything we could talk about you can find me Instagram and Twitter @jadejardinico.

Manila Shaker is a tech media producing insightful and helpful content for our local and growing international audience. Our goal is to create a premier Philippine digital consumer electronics resource that provides the most objective reviews and comparisons globally.